If you go back 11 generations pretty much everyone is related to everyone. If you have to go back 34 generations to find a famous relative then your family is not as good as the average...

Oh, I've got famous relatives closer in. Off the top of my head, I'm descended from 2 signers of the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll and Stephen Hopkins), and in the direct male line every member of my family (myself included) has served in the US military in some point in their life in every generation since the Revolution, but that wasn't relevant to a discussion about the Battle of Hastings. Many, many people are probably descended from him, I could actually trace the lineage.

dready zim : Also, does anyone else know what sort of wood the shields were made out of? (I know the guy that probably made the shields in the image in TFA, the round ones anyway)

A couple of people I know got seriously into the SCA, (Society for Creative Anachronism), the group that dresses up like medieval times and have mock swordfights. Since I am handy at building things and have a lot of tools they asked me to help build them. There are two kinds of shields, the shields that they draw fancy artwork on for show and the shields that they use for the mock swordfights. The artwork shields are plywood covered with bondo, then the artwork is done on them and then they get sealed with clear. The first fighting shields I made were also plywood, but covered with sheets of aluminum. But as they got more serious about it, we switched to two inch thick solid oak, made from old table tops that people threw away at the land fill. Those suckers weighed close to 70 pounds and only very large people could use them, but a big part of the mock swordfights is the smacking of the shields and these shields gave them a decided edge.

seelorq:Elroydb: I would have been King of England just like you until I took an an arrow to the eye

Well, that's what you get for breaking a double-dog oath of fealty while touching two holy reliquaries.

Did you actually expect Billy boy to just roll over like some kinda bastard or something?

Are Skyrim jokes no longer apropos? :( I know its getting on in age now...

This story of England in 1066 is a great lesson as to why if you're going to have bastard children you "take care" of them before they can produce a male heir. Somewhere along the line its gonna be nothing but trouble

Though from what I understand of Hastings despite having worn out and injured army from defeating Harald of Norway and racing across England, Godwinson's postion on the battlefield gave him a strong chance at victory if the two sides actually engaged

cgraves67:cman: One would think that these folk would not be celebrating the conquest of their forefathers

It's so far in the past that both sides are their ancestors now. 300 years before that, it was Danish Vikings settling in on the East side of the island, or just leaving their genes in a few Saxon women. The "English" are mutts, if a WASP is being racist, you have a free pass to laugh in his or her face.

/Anglo-American, so even more muttish than regular Anglo Saxons

Meh, they're "mutts" of similar races they'd consider superior to the ones to which they are being racist.

Hey, WASP, why are you acting so superior, you're descended from Norse, Saxons, and Danes!! LOL!!

Elroydb:seelorq: Elroydb: I would have been King of England just like you until I took an an arrow to the eye

Well, that's what you get for breaking a double-dog oath of fealty while touching two holy reliquaries.

Did you actually expect Billy boy to just roll over like some kinda bastard or something?

Are Skyrim jokes no longer apropos? :( I know its getting on in age now...

This story of England in 1066 is a great lesson as to why if you're going to have bastard children you "take care" of them before they can produce a male heir. Somewhere along the line its gonna be nothing but trouble

Though from what I understand of Hastings despite having worn out and injured army from defeating Harald of Norway and racing across England, Godwinson's postion on the battlefield gave him a strong chance at victory if the two sides actually engaged

Godwinson's position was already compromised merely by being on the battlefield at Hastings. He was given good advice to slow his ass down and rest his army a bit and receive further reinforcements before continuing south but didn't take it--in some respects he was the Custer of his time.

Debeo Summa Credo:cgraves67: cman: One would think that these folk would not be celebrating the conquest of their forefathers

It's so far in the past that both sides are their ancestors now. 300 years before that, it was Danish Vikings settling in on the East side of the island, or just leaving their genes in a few Saxon women. The "English" are mutts, if a WASP is being racist, you have a free pass to laugh in his or her face.

/Anglo-American, so even more muttish than regular Anglo Saxons

Meh, they're "mutts" of similar races they'd consider superior to the ones to which they are being racist.

Hey, WASP, why are you acting so superior, you're descended from Norse, Saxons, and Danes!! LOL!!

Not to mention Celts, Romans, and every variety of Roman mercenary and slave that they brought to that island, and the Franks and Lombards that Willy the Bastard imported. England is a regular medley of European and Mediterranian tribes.

If you're insinuating that every such group on earth is of a similar heritage, you are correct. You can dredge up enough history on any group to discover their motley anscestry. It's why racism and ethnic discrimination is so ridiculous. Every group has been conquered, been enslaved, emigrated, merged with, raped, been raped by uncounted numbers of ohers in the long history of humanity. No one is pure anything.